Duncan, Ginobili among league leaders in playoffs

Sportsline.com rates NBA players by position based on their playoff performances. Among the interesting numbers, Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson is No. 1 at point guard. Iverson is also done, since the Sixers were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers.

Tim Duncan is No. 2 at power forward behind Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki. The Spurs’ Manu Ginobili is No. 5 at shooting guard, probably the highest rating of any player in the league who doesn’t start. And Nazr Mohammed is No. 10 at center, even though he didn’t become a starter for the Spurs until the very end of the regular season.

Here is how ESPN.com’s Skip Bayless described Ginobili: He hit Denver like a blizzard of slashing, swooping, sprawling energy. He was all over the floor, playing with an intensity unbecoming of a true star.

Men like Troy Hudson, Luke Walton, Mario Elie and Matt Maloney belong to that rarest of NBA breeds, the mediocre player who becomes a star, or at least a catalyst, in the postseason. Chris Ballard of CNNSI.com adds Mohammed to a new group of less prominent players who are emerging to make an impact in this year’s playoffs.

Of the five biggest lessons from the first week of the playoffs, one is exactly how good Ginobili is, even when he is coming off the bench, according to Drew Packham of CNNSI.com.

Former Spurs guard Antonio Daniels has played well enough in his second season with the Sonics, not to mention in the first round of the playoffs, to get noticed by both Seattle papers.

If the celebratory contact between Daniels and forward Nick Collison didn’t exactly connect, it was about the only thing they didn’t connect on all night long, according to Angelo Bruscas of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“Everybody said all year that we can’t do this and we can’t do that,” said Daniels, who came off the bench for 14 points and eight assists on Tuesday. More from Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelly.